CASE STUDY — Aug 26, 2025
Optimizing Supply Chain Efficiencies at a Large Packaged Food Corporation
THE CLIENT:
A large U.S.-based packaged food corporation
USERS:
Data science team supporting strategic decision-making for an extensive network of supply chain managers
According to the OECD, approximately 70% of international trade involves global value chains, as services, raw materials, parts, and components cross borders — often numerous times.1 In today’s fast-paced environment, supply chain management is a key function where sound strategies can create corporate value by diversifying to minimize risks, capitalizing on lower-priced alternatives and innovations, and staying one step ahead of the competition.
Focusing on reliable suppliers, competitive costs, and risk management along the supply chain is an essential activity at this large food manufacturer, given the thousands of ingredients that are sourced globally to keep the company’s products on the shelves. The supply chain managers are charged with creating strong relationships with firms that can deliver quality ingredients at reasonable prices, and helping to align production with end customer demand. They are supported by a data science team that is made up of experts who understand where to find data and how to analyze it to uncover important strategic insights. The data science team was tasked with helping the supply chain managers analyze their activities to uncover opportunities to increase efficiencies and reduce costs.
Pain Points
In a highly-competitive market, it is essential to have tight relationships with reliable suppliers that offer competitive prices. The data science team needed more robust trade data to help the supply chain managers zero in on opportunities to improve efficiencies and reduce costs.
The company had extensive and long-standing relationships with food and ingredient suppliers around the world and relied on internal information to understand its supply chain movements and interactions. This data was limited, however, when it came to identifying broader areas for improvement and understanding the competitive landscape. The data science and supply chain teams wanted to draw on more robust information to understand opportunities for efficiency gains and anticipate potential risks. In particular, members of the data science team wanted web-based access to extensive trade data that would enable them to:
- Monitor overall buying-selling activities to and from countries to better understand global supply and demand trends.
- Look at shipment transactions for current suppliers to estimate the company’s share of activity and potential negotiating power.
- Determine which competitors were using these same providers and the prices they were paying to pinpoint potential cost savings.
- Identify new, lower-cost suppliers.
- Monitor other commodities that could be possible substitutions over time.
A member of the data science team had worked with S&P Global Market Intelligence (“Market Intelligence”) in the past and reached out to the firm to discuss its trade-related offerings.
The Solution
Market Intelligence discussed its web-based Panjiva Supply Chain Intelligence solution that provides unrivaled data on every stage of global trade activity — from manufacturers and buyers to shipping and logistics. The powerful analytical tools would enable the team to:
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Understand detailed trade flows |
The Panjiva Supply Chain Intelligence platform provides access to over 1.8 billion transaction records, 13 million company-to-company relationships, and approximately 40% of global merchandise traded by dollar value.2 The records include importer and exporter company names, product details, dollar values, harmonized international trade (HS) codes, and more. |
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Pinpoint companies and products |
Powerful search tools enable users to quickly identify particular companies and products of interest. |
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Visualize data to easily see relationships |
Visualization tools include heat maps, which can be customized based on the metrics being considered. For example, a heat map can display the relationship between the origin of a shipment and HS codes that are used to classify traded products, showing concentration in a particular market. |
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Anticipate competitor strategies |
Shipment data for competitive firms provides transparency into the suppliers being used and the prices being paid. It also provides a lens into new products coming into the market that competitors are using. |
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Create customized views |
Personalized dashboards provide customized visuals of relevant data to automatically see updates as they become available, helping to spot trends in supplier data. |
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See detailed reports |
Export and import shipment reports for buyers and suppliers show trends and can be automatically generated by selecting a product name and country. Reports include date, shipper, destination, and more. |
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Obtain alerts for new shipments |
Alerts are available via email or on the platform any time a new company matches the search criteria, or when an existing company has new shipment activity. |
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Perform supplier due diligence |
Company-specific details include location, current trading partners, shipping volume year-over-year, revenue, employee count, and more to help assess the size and performance of different firms. |
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Easily make contact |
Information is also available on the names, titles, phone numbers, and email addresses of key personnel at over one million companies to quickly identify the appropriate individuals to contact. |
Key Benefits
Members of the data science team found the comprehensive information, analytics tools, and visualizations to be very valuable. The solution would enable them to save time with easy-to-use online capabilities and gain needed competitive intelligence to help benchmark the company’s buying power and sourcing strengths. In particular, they valued the ability to:
- Understand buyer and supplier trends around the world for the wide range of products of interest.
- Pinpoint opportunities to negotiate better prices where the firm was a significant buyer and/or where competitors were receiving better prices.
- Investigate technological innovations in manufacturing and logistics that are resulting in a different dynamic in supply chain planning, which can bring production closer to customers.
- Perform supplier due diligence by looking at a company’s trade history, typical buyer profile, and financial position.
- Increase productivity with dashboards that summarize essential information.
- Quickly contact potential new suppliers with access to phone numbers and emails.
- Generate reports to share with other team members.
- Receive daily alerts regarding the most vital information about global trade.
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